The Var side: the quieter corner of the French Riviera

The less-visited Var region of the Côte d’Azur is full of glorious beaches, heritage-rich towns and bucolic vineyards

Saint-Tropez may be known for glitz, but a few miles along the coast, the very ground beneath my feet glitters like a jet-setter hotel. I’m in the Var department in south-eastern France, where the Maures massif meets the Mediterranean and the bedrock is mica schist, a flaky stone that sparkles in the Provençal sunshine (and also makes for great wine).

This particular glitz is the only thing this quiet region has in common with better-known stretches of the Côte d’Azur. A glance at a map shows why: in much of the Riviera the railway hugs the shore, but at Saint-Raphaël it loops inland, rejoining the coast at Toulon, 60 miles away. (Some say farmers refused to sell their land in the 1860s.) No rail access has meant fewer tourists, less development and, today, an area of green hills and coast dotted with small towns and quiet, even wild, beaches.